Passport Alchemy 3
Sample Editor
Published in SOS June 1996
Reviews : Software: ALL
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Now that Sound Designer II no longer provides sampler support, the way is clear for an improved
version of the veteran Alchemy software. MIKE COLLINS thinks it's worth its weight in gold.
Alchemy sample-editing software for the Macintosh has been around for some years now, but after disappearing briefly (as if
to gauge its popularity) it's had a facelift and staged a comeback. At least part of the reason for this new lease of life is
Digidesign's decision to remove sampler support from its Sound Designer II software. Sound Designer II started out as a
sample editor, and allowed you to transfer audio to and from a range of popular samplers, but has now been optimised for
editing complete audio recordings rather than short audio samples. This has opened up a niche for Alchemy 3.0, which has
been upgraded to support the most popular samplers currently available. I'll run through the new features first, before
recapping on the basic package, and offering a few tips and hints on how to get the best from it.
NEW FEATURES
Existing Alchemy users will be pleased to hear about the many useful new features: the Soundfile Info dialogue has been
expanded to include a pop-up menu which lets you access all open files, a new Graphical Key remapping function, and loop
start/stop information. The Graphic Keymapping provides a quick and easy way to assign pitch ranges to samples using the
mouse, while the Loop Information allows you to numerically adjust loop start and end points, or turn loops on or off.
The Process menu also has some additions. For instance, the Pitchshift Dialogue now shows frequency in Hertz and cents, to
allow finer adjustments than previously, and the Resample dialogue now features an option to set sample rate conversion
based on the period of the sample (ie. how often the waveform repeats itself). If you click the button labelled 'Sample Period',
the sample rate is recalculated to an integer multiple of the sample period, which makes looping much easier. Once you've set
your loops, you can change the sample rate to suit the particular sampler you are working with -- and that includes any
changes you've made.
Talking of looping, Alchemy 3.0 now lets you adjust loop points in the waveform window using the left/right arrow keys on your
Macintosh keyboard. Using the modifier keys (Command, Shift and Option) you can edit either the left or right loop points, or
move both loop points together. These great features allow you to loop your samples much more quickly, accurately and
efficiently before transferring them to your favourite sampler, with the benefit of seeing …
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